Continuous fibre disentangling and straightening apparatus



Dec. 19, 1967 CHAIKIN ETAL 3,

CONTINUOUS FIBRE DISENTANGLING AND STRAIGHTENING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 5, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventor: MALCOLM CI-I/II/(IIV A Home y:

Dec. 19, 1967 M. CHAIKiN ETAL CONTINUOUS FlBRE DISBNTANGLING AND STRAIGHTENING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 5, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG.4-

Inventor: MALCOLM. 4(5 (41/551 Doaauzs DI/LC/(J' Attorneys United States Patent 3,358 336 CONTINUOUS FIBRE IfISENTANGLING AND STRAIGH'I'ENING APPARATUS Malcolm Chaikin, 26 Martin Road, Centennial Park, New

South Wales, and Alexander Douglas Dircks, 18 Woolwich Road, Hunters Hill, New South Wales, Australia Filed Oct. 5, 1965, Ser. No. 493,164 Claims priority, application Australia, Oct. 9, 1964, 59,327/ 64 5 Claims. (Cl. 19-128) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A machine for continuously disentangling and aligning textile fibers such as wool fibers by means of a series of rotating pinned cylinders, a layer of fibers being passed from cylinder to cylinder and being straightened and disentangled by being drawn off the pins of a preceding cylinder by the pins of a subsequent cylinder rotating at a greater speed. There is provided between one or more adjacent pairs of cylinders in the series a device for condensing and thickening the layer of fibers, which, as the speed of rotation of the cylinders increases, tends to become attenuated.

The invention relates to apparatus for disentangling and aligning textile fibres, and in particular though not exclusively, to rotary apparatus for the continuous conversion of wool to sliver form.

In textile processing operations, such as the conversion of raw wool to combed top, the fibres are treated in a series of machines so as to disentangle and assemble them into a continuous sheet or sliver having the fibres approximately parallel and aligned in the direction of length of the sliver. In present wool topmaking practice, this disentangling aligning and assembly is done after scouring by carding and gilling operations.

The carding machine consists of a number of rotating cylinders of various sizes, speeds and functions, each cylinder surface being covered with numerous fine wire points. In a carding machine, a mass of entangled fibres entering the system is progressively divided by a series of actions in which it is held by the tips of the Wires on one cylinder surface whilst part of that mass is withdrawn by the wires of an adjacent cylinder surface; this dividing action results in individualisation and partial alignment of the fibres. Other actions in the carding machine achieve transfer and further alignment of the fibres. The product of the carding machine is a continuous sheet of fibres,

condensed through a funnel to form a sliver of uniform weight per unit length, in which the fibres are individualised and partly aligned The gilling machine, or gillboX, consists of a pair of feed rollers, and a pair of delivery rollers having a surface speed several times greater than that of the feed rollers. Several slivers of the carded material enter the feed rollers and are attenuated or drafted between these and the delivery rollers, Between the feed and delivery rollers several rows of pins, mounted on bars, are introduced into the fibre mass. The pinned bars are moved towards the delivery rollers at approximately the same speed as the fibres coming through the feed rollers. The fibres are further straightened and aligned more parallel to the length of the sliver as they are drawn from the pins by the delivery rollers.

The material emerges from the delivery rollers as a continuous sheet of fibres, and is condensed through a funnel to form a sliver. Normally three gill-box processes are used in sequence after carding to achieve sutficient alignment and straightening of the fibres for the wool combing process.

Carding and gilling processes, as at present used, involve considerable breakage of fibres, which leads to more waste and lower efficiency in later processes. In addition, the production rates of present carding and gilling machinery are severely restricted. In the case of the card, its actions take place mainly on the surface of the cylinders and hence the fibres must be in the form of a thin layer thus restricting the rate of production. Another defect of the card is that the quality of its product gradually deteriorates over a period of several days of operation, and it must then be stopped to remove fibres and impurities from the wires on the rollers to restore its efliciency; product quality is thus not constant.

In the case of the gill-box, there is a definite speed limit to the action of the pinned bars, or fallers, which have to be accelerated rapidly in order that they shall enter and leave the fibre stream with the least possible forward movement relative to the fibres.

Apparatus for continuously disentangling, straightening and aligning textile fibers, having means for gripping a relatively thick layer of loose, entangled fibers while feeding it continuously towards a pin-bearing cylinder mounted for rotation about its axis, the cylinder having projecting from its peripheral surface a plurality of pins arranged to penetrate the layer completely as the cylinder rotates, means for rotating the cylinder at a rate such that the surface speed of the cylinder is greater than the speed at which the layer of fibers is fed towards the cylinder, whereby fibers from the layer are subjected to a combing and drafting action while being taken up by the pins on the cylinder, at least one similar pin-bearing cylinder being mounted for rotating about its axis adjacent said first-mentioned pin-bearing cylinder, each pinbearing cylinder rotating in an opposite direction from the one before it and at a speed such that its surface speed is greater than the surface speed of the preceding cylinder and being arranged so that the pins thereon act to strip completely the layer of fibers from the preceding cylinder with a combing and drafting action and to deliver fibers therefrom, and a condensing means comprising means to strip the layer of fibers completely from the surface of a preceding pin-bearing cylinder without buckling the fibers, means to detach portions of said layer of fibers and to arrange said portions in overlapping relationship to form a thickened layer and means for feeding said thickened layer to a succeeding pin-bearing cylinder.

By the term a relatively thick layer of fibres is meant a layer the weight of which per unit area is many times greater than the weight per unit area of a corresponding layer handled by a carding machine. The ability of apparatus according to the present invention to deal with a relatively thick layer of fibres enables it to achieve a greatly increased rate of production as compared with conventional apparatus, thus diminishing the capital outlay required to achieve a given rate of production.

In preferred forms of the invention a relatively thick layer of fibres is acted upon by a series of pins projecting from the periphery of one or more rotating cylinders. A drawing or drafting action is imparted to the fibre layer by a difference of surface speeds between the pin-bearing cylinder and feeding means constituted by a pair of feeding transfer rolls, or between two adjacent pin-bearing cylinders. A complete transfer of the material takes place, and the fibres are finally stripped from the surface of the final cylinder by passing the fibres between a pair of delivery transfer rolls which constitute the stripping means, the resulting product being a sliver of partly aligned fibres.

One or more pin-bearing cylinders may be introduced between the feeding and delivery pairs of transfer rollers, and drafts between the first cylinder and the feed transfer rollers, between one cylinder and the next cylinder, or between the final cylinder and the delivery transfer rollers may be varied, depending on the degree of fibre straightening desired.

Additional pairs of receiving and feeding rollers may be placed between one pinned cylinder and the next, to achieve optimum fibre disentangling, straightening and aligning.

With each drafting action there is an increase in speed and a corresponding decrease in thickness of the sheet of fibres. After several drafting actions in sequence the sheet of fibres will therefore become too thin and fast for efiicient working. To allow any desired number of fibre disentangling straightening and aligning actions to take place within the one machine, it is preferred to use a special arrangement of cylinders to give a condensing or overlapping action with consequent slowing-down and thickening of the sheet of fibres. Such a condensing action should not decrease the degree of fibre alignment achieved by previous drafting actions.

The rollers which feed material to and take material from the pinned cylinders may have their surfaces of smooth or fluted metal, or of rubber or synthetic elastic material, or they may be wrapped with sawtooth wire to give the most satisfactory transfer or fibres at that point.

Various methods of construction of the pin-bearing cylinders may be used. Firstly, the pins may be mounted such that their position relative to the cylindrical surface is .fixed. These pins may be mounted radial to the cylinder surface, or set at any angle to the cylinder surface.

. Secondly, the pins may be mounted such that at a predetermined peripheral position on the cylinder, the-pins may be retracted radially or at some angle to the radius to release their influence on the fibre layer, and thus facilitate transfer of the fibres from the cylinder. Thirdly, the pins may be mounted such that at a predetermined peripheral position on the cylinder, the angle of inclination of the pins to the cylinder surf-ace can be varied, to

give a leading or trailing position of the pins (relative to the radial direction) and hence facilitate removal of the fibres from a cylinder, or to enhance the pick up of fibres by a cylinder. In addition, by using a suitable rate of angular variation of the pins, relative to the cylinder rotation, the pins can be made to penetrate the fibre stream with no relative motion between pins and fibres in the direction of movement of the fibres, and thus the fibre alignment will not be disturbed during pin penetration.

The pins may be of any suitable length and any two adjacent cylinders may be set such that their pins may or may not intersect.

In order that the invention may be better understood and put into practice, preferred embodiments thereof are hereinafter described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings'in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a simple form of the invention including two pin-bearing cylinders.

FIG. 2 is a sectional end view of a pin-bearing cylinder 7 and its driving motor, the left-hand side of the figure be ing a section on line AA of FIG. 3 and the right-hand side a section on line BB of FIG. 3,

FIG. 3 is a sectional elevation On line CC of FIG. 2, and

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of a more elaborate form of the invention including two sets of pin-bearing cylinders with a condensing section between.

In the arrangement shown in FIG. 1 the apparatus consists of a conveyor onto which a mass of, for example, wool fibres to be disentangled and aligned are fed and carried to a pair of feeding transfer rollers 11 which through the belt 14 and a reversing gear (not seen). The motor 13 also drives the conveyor belt 10 and rollers 11 through the belt 15 and a second pin-bearing cylinder 16 through the belt 17. The direction of rotation of the pin-bearing cylinders is as indicated by the curved arrows.

The construction of the cylinders 12 and 16 is described in more detail below in connection with FIGS. 2 and 3; at this stage it is sufiicient to mention that each cylinder has extending from its surface a set of pins 18. The pins '18 are arranged in axially aligned rows and are spaced evenly over the surface of the cylinder; each row of pins can move into and out of the surface of the cylinder and as is indicated in FIG. 1 the pins of cylinder 12 are fully extended opposite the rollers 11 and are retracted as the cylinder rotates, so that they are fully retracted when opposite the second pin-bearing cylinder 16. The pins on that cylinder move in; the same manner;

The cylinder 12 is rotated at a speed suchthat it has a surface velocity of, for example, four times that of the rollers 11. As cylinder 12 rotates its pins penetrate the layer of fibres fed forward between the rollers 11 and the fibres are taken up on and carried forward by the pins 18. By means of the difference in velocities mentioned above and the restraint placed on the layer of fibres by the gripping action of the rollers 11 a drafting action takes place Which effects a degree of disentangling and straightening of the fibres.

The fibres are carried round on the pins of the cylinder 12 towards the cylinder 16, the pins 18 of the cylinder 12 being retracted into the surface of the cylinder during rotation so that when the fibres have been taken up by the 7 pins of the cylinder 16 those of cylinder 12 are completecompress the fibres into a relatively thick layer and grip them, while feeding them forward to a first pin-bearing" cylinder 12 which is rotated by the electric rnotor 13 ly retracted. Until then, they exercise a suflicient grip on the fibres such that when the layer of fibres is penetrated by the pins of cylinder 16 its free movement is restrained.

The cylinder 16 is rotated at a speed such that its surface velocity is, for example, four times that of cylinder 12. This leads to a further drafting action taking place as the fibres are transferred from the pins of cylinder 12 to those of cylinder 16. This effects a further degree of disentangling, straightening and aligning.

When the fibres first come under the action of the pins of cylinder 16 they are still held by the pins of the cylinder 12 and thus there is a combing action of the leading ends'of the fibres as the pins of the cylinder 16 pass through them. When more than about half the length of any particular group of fibres has been transferred to the cylinder 16 the fibres tend to move with that cylinder and thus the trailing ends are combed by the pins of the cylinder 12 due to the ditference in speed between the two cylinders. The combined drafting and combing actions lead to the disentangling, straightening and aligning of the fibres. This action is much gentler in its effect on the fibres than is the action of a carding machine due to the lower relative velocity between the pins of the cylinder and the layer of fibres when compared with the velocity of the wires of the carding machine in relation to the fibres. The result is that breakage of fibres is reduced.

The fibres are then carried round with the roller-16 and delivered to the pair of delivery transfer rollers 21 which are rotated through the belt 22. The layer of fibres which extends over the full width of the roller will be considerably thinner than the layer fed to the cylinder 12 but will be less entangled and the fibres straighter and nearly aligned. The layer is then passed through the funnel 23 to the rollers 24 for further processing.

The arrangement of FIG. 1 including as it does only two cylinders would not produce the degree of straighter alignment and disentanglement that would normally be required for practical purposes and is described mainly to illustrate the principle of operation of the invention. A more practical form of apparatus is illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show in more detail the construction of a pin-bearing cylinder similar to those shown in FIGS. 1 and 4.

The cylinder 31 is mounted on a shaft 32 supported for rotation in the bearings 33 and 34, and is driven by the electric motor 35 through the belt drive 36. In the periphery of the cylinder are milled slots 37 in each of which a pin carrying bar 38 is freely slidable. The slots 37 are arranged at a slight angle to the radial direction, for example 15, so that the pins 39 are tilted in the direction of rotation of the cylinder, this assists both the pick up and transfer of the fibres.

In practice the slots 37 may be spaced about /2" apart, the density of the pins along the bars 38 being from about 4 pins to the inch to 20 pins to the inch, these figures being purely exemplary.

At the ends of each bar 38 are rollers 41 which run in stationary cam tracks 42, the cam tracks being shaped to provide the desired motion of the pins 39, the pins being retracted and extended cyclically as the roller rotates.

In the arrangement shown in FIG. 4 the apparatus functions in essentially the same manner as does the apparatus of FIG. 1 but is more elaborate in that it includes a first pair of pin-bearing cylinders similar to those of FIG. 1, then a condensing section followed by three more pinbearing cylinders.

A conveyor 51 feeds fibres to two pairs of feed rollers 52 and 53 from which the thick layer of fibres is taken up on pin-bearing cylinders 54 and 55 as described in connection with cylinders 12 and 16 of FIG. 1; these cylinders and the other moving parts being driven by motor 56 through belt drives; the speed ratios are as described in connection with FIG. 1.

At this stage the speed of travel of the layer of fibres through the machine has been considerably increased since entry and the thickness of the layer has been much reduced as a result of the drafting actions. To carry out further disentangling and aligning of the fibres the fibre layer is condensed and its speed reduced by the action of the cylinders 57 and 58 driven from the motor 61.

The cylinder 57 is a tuft forming cylinder having a surface velocity approximately ten times that of the cylinder 55. It is constructed and driven in substantially the same manner as cylinders 57 and 58 but has only four rows of pins arranged in diametrically opposite pairs. The pins of this cylinder detach tufts of fibres from the cylinder 55 and deposit them in overlapping fashion on the surface of the collecting cylinder 58, the surface velocity of which is slightly greater than that of the feed rollers 53 hence the fibers form a thick but slowly moving layer on its surface. The fibres are then taken between the conveyor belts 62 and 63, transfer from cylinder 58 being assisted by a roller 64. The belts 62 and 63 and the roller 64 and the next feed rollers 65 all have a surface velocity approximately equal to that of the feed rollers 53, so that the fibres are now in a layer of approximately the same weight per unit length and same velocity as when entering the machine. The fibres however are in a less entangled and more straight and parallel formation than they were when fed into the machine due to the several drafting and combing actions which have taken place between rollers 53 and rollers 65. The actions of the unit made up of parts 53 to 65 can, if required, be repeated several times until the desired degree of fibre disentangling, straightening and parallelisation is achieved. Further drafting actions take place between feed rollers 65 and pin-bearing cylinder 66, between cylinder 66 and cylinder 67, between cylinder 67 and cylinder 68, and the fibres are taken from cylinder 68 by delivery rollers 71. The sheet of fibres is gathered across its width into the funnel 72, and through the calender rollers 73. The sliver of fibres then passes to a coiler and sliver can, not shown in the drawing.

The cylinder 58 is provided with a surface to which the tufts of fibres will adhere efficiently to be carried round by the cylinder but not to such a degree that they will not become detached on reaching the roller 64. In place of the cylinder 58 a wire mesh belt may be used.

The speed of rotation of the pin-bearing cylinders 66, 67 and 68 increases from cylinder to cylinder for the reason previously described and it is preferred that the pin density on the surface of the cylinders should increase similarly to give a finer and finer combing action.

In an alternative method of construction of the pinbearing cylinders, the rows of pins are mounted on bars which are moved in or out of the slots due to the bars being supported at several places along their length by attachments to cam followers which move in stationary cams located within the hollow interior of the cylinder.

In an alternative arrangement of the machine elements, not shown in the drawings, fibre transfer from cylinder to cylinder is facilitated by having the angular protrusion of the pins from the cylinder surface vary at the adjacent point of two cylinders. In this case, the pins of the cylinder being stripped tilt forward relative to the rotation of the cylinder, and the pins of the stripping cylinder, which may also tilt forward at this point, exert a greater frictional force on the fibres, as the fibres slide readily forward on the tilted pins on the cylinder being stripped.

In another alternative arrangement, the pins may be fixed to the cylinder surface, and may or may not intersect, with the pins of an adjacent cylinder.

In conjunction with the use of pin-bearing cylinders and pairs of transfer rollers of various constructions to achieve fibre straightening, and fibre condensing actions there may also be jets of air or streams of air directed so as to assist transfer of fibres from one cylinder or roller to another as required. For this puropse any pin-bearing cylinder or other cylinder or roller may be constructed of porous material or perforated so that air can be made to flow inwards or outwards through its porous surface or perforations over all or portions of its periphery as required.

In any of the constructions described above the following characteristics may be varied to suit the nature of the fibre being treated:

(i) the diameters of the pin-bearing cylinders and transfer rollers,

(ii) the speeds of the pin-bearing cylinders and transfer rollers,

(iii) the length of the pins,

(iv) the diameter of the pins,

' (v) the space between consecutive pins in any one row,

(vi) the space between consecutive rows of pins in any pinned cylinder,

(vii) the length (in direction of cylinder axis) of any cylinder or roller.

The apparatus, according to the invention, which has been particularly described above, is merely illustrative of particular arrangements which have been found satis factory for the disentangling and straightening of scoured wool fibres. It should be understood that the apparatus of the invention in its broader aspects is applicable to other textile processes, and to materials other than scoured wool, for instance wool in its greasy or unscoured state, synthetic fibres and cotton.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for continuously disentangling, straightening and aligning textile fibers, having means for gripping a relatively thick layer of loose, entangled fibers while feeding it continuously towards a pin-bearing cylinder mounted for rotation about its axis, the cylinder having projecting from its peripheral surface a plurality of pins arranged to penetrate the layer completely as the cylinder rotates, means for rotating the cylinder at a rate such that the surface speed of the cylinder is greater than the speed at which the layer of fibers is fed towards the cylinder, whereby fibers from the layer are subjected to a combing and drafting action while being taken up by the pins on the cylinder, at least one similar pin-bearing cylinder being mounted for rotating about itsaxis ad- 7 jacent said first-mentioned pin-bearing cylinder and form- ,bearing cylinderwithin said train rotating in an opposite direction from the one before it and at a speed such that its surface speed is greater than the surface speed of the preceding cylinder in said train and being arranged .so that the pins thereon act to strip completely the layer of fibers from the preceding cylinder with a combing and drafting action and to deliver fibers therefrom, and a condensing means comprising means to strip the layer of fibers completely from the surface of a preceding pinfbearing cylinder without buckling the fibers including means to detach ortions of said layer of fibers and to arrange said portions in overlapping relationship to form a thickened layer, and means for feeding said thickened layer to a succeeding pin-bearing cylinder.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the conden'sing means consist of a condensing cylinder having two diametrically opposite sets of pins which is mounted for rotation about its axis adjacent a pin-bearing cylinder, means to rotate the condensing cylinder at a speed greater than the speed of the pin-bearing cylinder to cause the pins thereof to penetrate the layer of fibres thereon and remove separate tufts of fibres from said pin-bearing cylinder, a collecting cylinder mounted adjacent said condensing cylinder for rotation about its axis in a position and at a rate such that the tufts of fibres are laid down in overlapping relationship to form a relatively thick layer of fibres on the surface of said collecting roller and means to transfer the layer so formed to a subsequent pin-bearing cylinder.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the .pins are arranged to project from the cylinder in a direction at an angle to the radial direction.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pins are mounted on means movable towards and away from the axis of the pin-bearing cylinder, said means permitting the pins to be moved cyclically from a position in which they project beyond the surface of the cylinder to a position in which they are retracted below the surface thereof as the cylinder rotates to facilitate transfer of fibres to and from the cylinder.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein the pins are mounted on bars movable in slots in the cylinder, the ends of the bars running in fixed cam tracksarranged at each end of the cylinder.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 131,708 9/1882 Rinek 19-128 2,533,218 12/1950 Brooks 19-128 3,097,399 7/1963 Alston 19- 9s FOREIGN PATENTS 662 1852 Great Britain. 128,791 11/ 1928 Switzerland.

MERVIN STEIN, Primal Examiner.

I. C. WADDEY, Assistant Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY DISENTANGLING, STRAIGHTENING AND ALIGNING TEXTILE FIBERS, HAVING MEANS FOR GRIPPING A RELATIVELY THICK LAYER OF LOOSE, ENTANGLED FIBERS WHILE FEEDING IT CONTINUOUSLY TOWARDS A PIN-BEARING CYLINDER MOUNTED FOR ROTATION ABOUT ITS AXIS, THE CYLINDER HAVING PROJECTING FROM ITS PERIPHERAL SURFACE A PLURALITY OF PINS ARRANGED TO PENETRATE THE LAYER COMPLETELY AS THE CYLINDER ROTATES, MEANS FOR ROTATING THE CYLINDER AT A RATE SUCH THAT THE SURFACE SPEED OF THE CYLINDER IS GREATER THAN THE SPEED AT WHICH THE LAYER OF FIBERS IS FED TOWARDS THE CYLINDER, WHEREBY FIBERS FROM THE LAYER ARE SUBJECTED TO A COMBING A DRAFTING ACTION WHILE BEING TAKEN UP BY THE PINS ON THE CYLINDER, AT LEAST ONE SIMILAR PIN-BEARING CYLINDER BEING MOUNTED FOR ROTATING ABOUT ITS AXIS ADJACENT SAID FIRST-MENTIONED PIN-BEARING CYLINDER AND FORMING WITH SAID FIRST MENTIONED PIN-BEARING CYLINDER A TRAIN OF ADJACENTLY ARRANGED SAID PIN-BEARING CYLINDERS, EACH PINBEARING CYLINDER WITHIN SADI TRAIN ROTATING IN AN OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM THE ONE BEFORE IT AND AT A SPEED SUCH THAT ITS SURFACE SPEED IS GREATER THAN THE SURFACE SPEED OF THE PROCEDING CYLINDER IN SAID TRAIN AND BEING ARRANGED SO THAT THE PINS THEREON ACT TO STRIP COMPLETELY THE LAYER OF FIBERS FROM THE PRECEDING CYLINDER WITH A COMBING AND DRAFTING ACTION AND TO DELIVER FIBERS THEREFROM, AND A CONDENSING MEANS COMPRISING MEANS TO STRIP THE LAYER OF FIBERS COMPLETELY FROM THE SURFACE OF A PRECEDING PINBEARING CYLINDER WITHOUT BUCKLING THE FIBERS INCLUDING MEANS TO DETACH PORTIONS OF SAID LAYER OF FIBERS AND TO ARRANGE SAID PORTIONS IN OVERLAPPING RELATIONSHIP TO FORM A THICKENED LAYER, AND MEANS FOR FEEDING SAID THICKENED LAYER TO A SUCCEEDING PIN-BEARING CYLINDER. 